These Potato Salad Pork Rolls are one of my favorites, probably close to my number one favorite dish Korokke. My mom used to put these in my bento and I still remember that feeling when I open the lunch box and see the pork rolls inside. When you make a lot of Japanese Potato Salad for a party or potluck, this is the most delicious way to use up the leftovers.
What are Japanese Pork Rolls?
Japanese pork rolls, or what we call niku maki (肉巻き), are a dish where you roll up various filling ingredient(s) in a piece of thinly sliced pork loin (or beef). We add carrots, green beans, asparagus, mushrooms…literally all kinds of things! Check out my Teriyaki Steak Rolls and Carrot Beef Rolls. In fact, majority of Japanese meat dishes use these paper-thin slices of beef and pork, from Nikujaga (Meat and Potato Stew) to Gyudon (Beef Bowl) to Shogayaki (Ginger Pork). I rarely see a big chunk of meat being cooked in my mom’s kitchen. You can find these pre-sliced meats in packages at Japanese (Korean and Chinese) grocery stores. We often cook these thinly sliced meats with vegetables so you naturally eat a more balanced meal. When my children were younger, I used to hide veggies in the meat rolls so they would finish the vegetables with the meat. It was also a creative way to introduce different vegetables to them. Today we’ll repurpose the Japanese potato salad I made the previous day.
The Crowd-Pleasing Japanese Potato Salad
Japanese Potato Salad is made with mashed potatoes with the addition of vegetables and sometimes ham, and seasoned with the best-tasting Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise. When the leftover potato salad gets rolled up with thin sliced pork loin and pan-fried until golden brown, it transforms into another genius recipe at once! The outside is crispy and glazed with the caramelized teriyaki sauce while the inside bursts with creamy textural contrast. The potato salad pork rolls are seriously good that I actually look forward to making (and eating) them. So I always double the amount when I make Japanese potato salad. That way, I’d get two delicious dishes one after another.
How to Make Potato Salad Pork Rolls
Ingredients You’ll Need
Japanese Potato Salad Thinly sliced pork loin – If you can’t get thinly sliced pork loin (usually the package label says it’s for Shabu Shabu), you can thinly slice the pork loin yourself following my tutorial. Potato starch (cornstarch) – Potato starch is commonly used in Japanese households, but you can certainly use cornstarch. Teriyaki sauce: sake, mirin, soy sauce, sugar, and ginger.
Substitution Tips and Variations
No Japanese potato salad? You can roll up mashed potatoes (similar to this recipe) or blanched vegetables (carrots, green beans, asparagus to start) in the thinly sliced pork. Pork – You can totally swap it with thinly sliced beef. In Japan, we use both interchangeably. Teriyaki sauce – you can use honey instead of sugar, and you can add garlic instead of ginger, etc. The basic teriyaki sauce does not include garlic or ginger, but you can make variations of teriyaki sauce based on how the sauce is used in the recipe.
The Cooking Steps
Cooking Tips for Pork Rolls
Do not overstuff the pork rolls. To make sturdy pork rolls, you need to roll up multiple times so that the potato salad is in multiple layers of pork. This creates more solid rolls. When you overstuff the filling, the layers will be thinner and the pork rolls can fall apart. Coat with potato starch (cornstarch). Two reasons why we do this: 1) locking in the moisture and juice from the meat, yielding more juicy meat, and 2) potato starch will help thicken the teriyaki sauce once the sauce is added. Do not touch too often while pan-searing. I’m guilty of this as I’m impatient. But remember, when you agitate or pick up the pork rolls with chopsticks or tongs, the pressure squeezes out the potato salad filling. Therefore, take a breath and let the pork rolls take time to sear on each side. Turn off the heat as soon as the sauce achieves desirable thickness. Because of the potato starch coating and sugar in the sauce, the sauce will thicken fast as you cook. If you want to drizzle some sauce over the finished dish, turn off the heat after the sauce gets sizzling. Then, you can coat the pork rolls well with the sauce with the remaining heat. I prefer thick and caramelized sauce around the pork rolls and do not need the extra sauce, so I continue to cook a bit longer.
Other Pork and Beef Rolls You’ll Enjoy
Teriyaki Steak Rolls Carrot Beef Rolls Mashed Potato Teriyaki Pork Rolls Ginger Pork Rolls with Eggplant
This is my mother’s recipe, and I remember my dad, my brother, and I used to love eating this. It’s one of the dishes that I still feel nostalgic about. I hope you enjoy these yummy pork rolls! Wish to learn more about Japanese cooking? Sign up for our free newsletter to receive cooking tips & recipe updates! And stay in touch with me on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram. Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on September 2, 2011. It’s been republished with updated content and new images on June 21, 2023.
